“Now they’re saying if any portion of your property falls within a special high-risk flood zone, you’ll be subject to a special rate,” said Raylene McSally, vice president of personal insurance at Taunton-based Farrell Backlund Insurance.

The government, she explained, sets the flood insurance rates.

“Taunton has a lot of aquifer, or water, around,” she said, making note of the Taunton River and Lake Sabbatia. “There are probably more homes than you would think that fall within a special flood hazard zone.”

Edward Flavin, president of Flavin Insurance Agency of Quincy, predicted that Quincy will see many more properties elevated to that category.

“There are very few that have gone from high risk to low risk, but there’s a lot going from low-risk to a high-risk rating,” said Flavin. “Homes along the bay where there’s rising water and the storms are getting fiercer, those people were not in a flood hazard (under the previous FEMA maps). They were far enough away but they’re not far enough away now.”

High-tech analysis by FEMA led to the changes in risk ratings, said David Mendelsohn, a natural hazard specialist at FEMA’s regional office in Boston.

“We have more precise topography of what the land elevations are than we did before,” said Mendelsohn, explaining that FEMA used aircraft armed with laser beams to survey coastal areas and calibrate elevations.

FEMA also factored in new buildings and roads that alter storm drainage in areas, making some of them more prone to flooding. Mendelsohn also said that new federal maps are based on another decade or more of new weather and tide data.

The federal government requires homeowners in flood-prone areas to carry flood insurance if they hold mortgages from federally regulated lenders. FEMA designates high-risk areas as ones with at least a one-in-four chance of flooding during a 30-year storm.

High-risk flood insurance premiums run as high as $4,500 per year compared to $500 for lower-risk properties, said Flavin.

But Flavin explained that old flood insurance policies are grandfathered even if the risk rating ratchets up. For homeowners who have no policy and find their property at a higher risk, they are entitled to two years at a preferred rate — about $750 a year.

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The new flood maps from FEMA went into effect just two weeks after Congress approved a five-year extension to the National Flood Insurance Program, which covers 5.6 million people.

The program was generally self-sustaining until Hurricane Katrina and other hurricanes struck in 2005. The program now owes the Treasury nearly $18 billion.

Geoff Gordon, president of Andrew G. Gordon, Inc., a Norwell insurance company, said the flood insurance reforms in Congress call for improved mapping by FEMA, raise deductibles for homeowners and allow premiums to rise by up to 20 percent a year.

“What’s really core when you get a new policy in the (high risk) zones, they are requiring an elevation certificate. How far above high tide are you?” said Gordon.

That will cost homeowners, too — at least $600 to hire an engineer or surveyor to answer the question, said Gordon.

Material from the Associated Press and Taunton Gazette Staff Writer Gerry Tuoti was used in this report.